Tuesday, July 26, 2011

So, the amplifiers at work for our balance that was built in the mid 1940's are run by vacuum tubes. No big deal in that they give a decent amplification of the analog signal to the motors that drive the balance. Problem is, the tubes are getting harder and harder to find. I have a source through a music store for a couple of them that are the same as electric guitar amps. However, one in particular is only available as Russian Surplus. Add to that the fact that the motors used in this beast haven't been made for years and are no longer available. We tried to get a shop to rewind them but the answer was NO from several shops.So part of the problem is availability of replacement tubes, part of the problem is availability of replacement motors and part of the problem is finding someone who can actually work on the amps. I am tired of dealing with them myself. the old boss was good with them but he is gone now and I am the person that has the most knowledge of them around here now. SCARY!Sorry, just venting. Did I mention that the room the balance is in is temperature stabilized? Being Texas, it is stabilized at a "warm" temperature so any prolonged troubleshooting involves a profuse amount of sweat. I now offend myself!

Sunday, July 24, 2011

I am kicking myself for not bookmarking the post that started these thoughts to coagulate in the bone structure that holds my little brain thing.

Someone posted on their blog that they were thinking of getting or building an AR and wanted to get readers advice as to whether they should buy or build and why did AR's cost so dang much from name vendors.

The responses are interesting and one in particular is what set me off. The writer responded that frankenguns are garbage and the only real AR that you can trust is one made by the higher end vendors. Problem being that most users really couldn't tell how good or bad their AR was until they went through a 3 day carbine class where you had to shoot 1500 rounds a day to see if your gun would hold up. That is where you see the failures of the lesser AR's.

UTTER! BULL! SHIT!

Bear with me a moment.

In handgun reviews you will also find folks that insist your handgun must shoot flawlessly for 200 rounds without lubrication and 2000 or even 10000 rounds without cleaning.

WHO! CARES!?

If you find yourself as an armed civilian needing to fire 200 rounds in a single engagement, you need a fire team, not a more "reliable" gun. So long as the gun goes bang every time for the first 20 rounds EVERY time you draw your fresh gun from leather, you are good to go for a carry gun. That is a 2-5X factor of safety for any gunfight you might find yourself in.Disagree? Find me an example of a real gunfight where a civilian needed 200 rounds to survive. I double dog dare you.

It just doesn't matter if the gun is tested to a safety factor of 50 100 or 1000. At some point the reliability is moot because it is no longer based in reality.

Back to the AR discussion that started this whole post. If an armed civilian is in a firefight that requires 1500 rounds in a day without a break for any maintenance, you don't need a more reliable rifle or even a fire team, you need close air support.

I would love for someone, anyone, to give an example of an armed encounter where a civilian needed to shoot their handgun 200 times without break. Or even had 200 rounds on them loaded up for this running gun battle. Or they needed a defensive rifle or carbine to fire 1500 rounds in a single engagement and had enough loaded mags on them to survive.

So, what about the future as opposed to lessons learned from the past and or lessons learned from events overseas? Beslan Massacre? What about this weekends murders in Norway? Could that happen here? Definite possibility of a firm maybe. Would a citizen carrying concealed need to or even have the ability to fire 200 rounds from their handgun is a single encounter? Not very bloody likely that they would have a single reload on them much less 200 rounds worth. Would an armed citizen even need to fire 200 rounds in an encounter like this? Not likely either.

As Tam is so want to point out, there all those that really wish for an armed rebellion of some kind to break out because that means they don't have to go to work tomorrow. They don't live in reality. I do.

As maybe an academic exercise, it might be interesting to see how robust a guns design and build are to extended torture testing. And that is exactly what this is. Torture testing. Nothing based in reality.

The shooting call came in at 7:10 p.m. The first officer arrived about 90 seconds later, he said. “It just started raining police,” Brimmer said.

Once four or five officers arrived, they went in, he said. By then, the shooting had stopped.

Highlighting mine. By the time the officers arrived, the shooting was over. there is nothing they could have done to prevent this terrible event.

This dovetails off of the shooting in Norway. That rises to the level of Horrific! A lone shooter dressed as a police officer went on a shooting spree on an island full of young communist campers. Due to their national firearms law, no one on the island was armed and there were no real police on the island to provide any sort of protection. The gunman had free reign for close to an hour before police could get a helicopter ride out to the island to engage the shooter and stop him. Reports are lots of people ran and or swam to get away while other faked being dead to avoid getting shot. NO ONE made any attempt to stop him or fight back in any way. At least there is no word of that as of yet. We are turning into a world of cowards who look to the government for everything. Protection, income, housing, healthcare, everything. A total loss of personal responsibility.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

So, manned spaceflight by America has come to an end. I watched enraptured as the first man walked on the moon. AN AMERICAN. Before that, I had the opportunity to hold in my very little hands, an original of the rams horn Handheld Maneuvering Unit our Astronauts used to guide them on spacewalks. I followed the space program with great anticipation of what great thing we would do next. I watched skylab and the joint USSR/NASA docking mission and wondered what we as not only a nation but as a planet would do next. Of late, I was an active part of the team that helped bring STS-117 and her crew back to earth safely after suffering a torn thermal blanket on liftoff. Now, NASA is relegated to a footnote of history charged with making Muslims feel good about their contribution to science and technology. What a sad day this is indeed!

Monday, July 4, 2011

So since we are under a burn ban as well as fireworks ban, the next best thing is to make noise and smoke. My neighbor Brass Valley Shooting was doing some tune up drills and fun shooting and I wandered over to put in my two rounds worth. It was nice to go shoot just for fun and put some lead downrange and do some transition drills with the carbine and pistol and just get out and shoot. Anyway, made noise and smoke, help a couple shooters (I Hope) and it's still mid day. Need to get misbeHaven outside on the range so she can tune up and put some rounds through her Kimber. Oh yeah, when someone asks, "Hey, you want some steel targets?" the correct answer is SURE!. I now have a stack of 3", 4" and 6" steel plates to setup as additional steel targets for the range here at the house. I may get some more and make a dueling tree for the .22, that would be a blast. HAHAHAHHA.

Friday, July 1, 2011

So last week during the Dyer Mill fire in south Grimes County, there were two fires in north Grimes County that pulled resources out of the major fire and put lives at risk through out the area. Now there have been at least six fires in the same area along the border of Grimes and Madison Counties.My thoughts are that this is the work of someones kid who is bored and has no respect for others lives or property and just want to see fire trucks and action in their area. They need to be stopped. IMMEDIATELY. If this is an adult, they need to be arrested and locked away for a long time while their brain is taken apart and studied. This is going to get someone killed before it is all over as they keep putting more and more people in danger and that is not acceptable. The idea that they keep setting fires about the same time of day in the same area says they are unsupervised and probably lack transportation. This is just flat wrong and there is NO justification for their parents not taking them out behind the woodshed and learning them a lesson in respect for others.

UPDATE: They have a suspect in custody. The Fire Marshal's office brought in an Arson Dog and took all kinds of samples and they made an arrest. Hopefully this will put an end to these fires.